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Dissension Among the Ranks

Gao crashed into the railing of their ship after being punched by an angry Mavado. Gao laughed as blood dripped from his nose. Mavado has had enough with this smart mouthed crazy idiot who laughed at everything.

"Looks like I touched a nerve there eh," Gao said, standing up and spitting blood out of his mouth. "What's the matter, haven't you ever lost a fight be-?" He never finished the question as Mavado's fist collided with his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Would you shut up?" Mavado said picking Gao up off the ground. Though Mavado had been badly hurt by Team Avatar, he was always a fast healer. Most of his woulds had healed mere hours after they were inflicted. He kept hitting Gao as the annoying kid laughed at his own pain. He eventually quit with the beat down and let Gao drop to the floor, while he was still laughing.

"Heh heh heh, is that all you got?" Gao mumbled as he staggered to his feet, dripping his blood all over the deck. "If so then it's my turn." As Mavado swung his fist at Gao, the bleeding idiot suddenly disappeared, in his place was a determined killer. Gao ducked under the punch gracefully and jabbed Mavado in his gut. At the same time Gao spun around Mavado and landed small blows on him. As Mavado tried to hit him, Gao seemed to melt around the attacks. Finally Gao moved behind Mavado and grabbed his head.

At this time Lian came onto the deck and saw the two in their struggle. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Just showing Mavado here a new move," Gao said while keeping his grip on Mavado's head.

"Let him go Gao," Lian ordered.

"As you wish, master," Gao said while snapping Mavado's neck. Looking at Lian's surprise he simply grunted. "You never said he had to be alive when I let him go."

Bearer of Bad News

Lian rubbed her temples as Gao limped past her. That was two dead in only a few days. If I get any more bad news today I just might crack, she thought as she moved Mavado's corpse next to Hou's. A loud screech distracted her from her thoughts. She looked up and saw a messenger hawk flying to her boat. She held her arm out as the hawk landed on it. She took the note out of the case on its back.

The note read, Lian, report to the nearest field base at once. Your hunt is over. Lu Ming. She slowly crumbled the paper in her hand and glared at the sea. Slowly she made her way to the helm and used waterbending to turn the ship towards the Earth Kingdom. She really pitied the poor fool who tried to mess with her today.

Rumors of War

Kaine and Rha sat inside the strange woman's room as she attended some meeting. True she had helped them get the layout of the base and filled them in on many of the things that happened here. She even got them in to see Sky and Tien, the two understood why they couldn't be set free. But they couldn't escape the feeling she wasn't telling them everything. So they decided to eavesdrop on the meeting. Well Rha would anyway. She looked at Kaine for the okay. He nodded and she slowly made her way out of the room and through the base. Rha used her new knowledge of the base to remain undetected as she approached the meeting room. She crept into the room and climbed onto a pillar in the corner. No one noticed. The old man with the red arrow tattoos, their mysterious woman friend with her face hidden deep in her hood, and the large earthbender along with several others were seated around a table.

"Our agent in the Northern Water Tribe has reported that Pakku is trying to persuade the Avatar to go to war with us," the old man stated. "So far he has refused."

"What else have our agents found out?" the large guy asked leaning lazily back in his chair.

"Despite the Avatar's refusal Pakku is still gathering troops," the woman answered. "In addition Iroh has managed to recruit King Bumi."

"Iroh, I can't believe Nero failed to kill him," the old man said while balling his fist. "In any event our client is getting impatient and wants to know why his enemies aren't dead."

"What did you tell him?" the one of the others asked.

"All in good time," the old man responded. "This meeting is over, dismissed."

As the others left the meeting the woman stayed behind. Once everyone was gone she turned to the pillar Rha was clinging to.

"You can come down now," she said. Rha slowly slid down the pillar and asked how she knew. "I don't miss much in this place," she answered. "Well come along, your friend will want to know what happened."